Samuel Johnson was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, on 18 September 1709, to Michael and Sarah Johnson. His father was a bookseller. Johnson suffered serious illnesses as a child, which left him with impaired sight and hearing and scars on his face and neck.

He attended Pembroke College, Oxford, but his family’s financial difficulties meant he could not complete his studies. After attempts to establish himself as a teacher and writer, he travelled to London with the young actor David Garrick in 1737.

Johnson earned money from journalism, translation and other literary work. In 1746 he agreed to compile a new dictionary of the English language. Working from a house in Gough Square with several assistants, he spent years assembling definitions and examples from English writing.

A Dictionary of the English Language appeared in 1755. It was not the first English dictionary, but its scale, scholarship and extensive use of quotations made it one of the most important works of its kind.

Johnson also wrote essays, criticism, biography, poetry and fiction. The bookseller’s son from Lichfield became a central figure in eighteenth-century English literature.